Humboldtia vahliana Wt. - FABACEAE-CAESALPINIOIDEAE

Vernacular names : Tamil: Attavanji.  Malayalam: Karappongu, Korathi, Kurappunna.

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 10 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark dark brown, shallowly fissured; blaze light brown.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets terete, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves compound, paripinnate, alternate, distichous; stipules in pairs, foliaceous, to 4 x 1.5 cm, narrow ovate, acuminate, with basal broad reniform appendage; rachis pulvinate, 5-13.5 cm long, slightly winged, otherwise terete; petiolule 0.5-0.8 cm long; leaflets 3 pairs, opposite or subopposite, usually lower pair slightly smaller than upper, lamina 9-25 x 2.5-7 cm, narrow elliptic or lanceolate, apex gradually long acuminate, base acute, margin entire, chartaceous to coriaceous, glabrous; midrib flat above; secondary_nerves 9-13 pairs, ascending towards apex; tertiary_nerves reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers white, in axillary racemes, tawny velvety.
Fruit and Seed : Pod flat, thin, tawny pubescent, to 20 cm long; 4-seeded.

Ecology :

Along streams or in swamps around low elevation evergreen forests generally up to 700 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- occasional in South Sahyadri and in South Malabar; rare in Palakkad-Kozhikode Region of North Malabar.

Literatures :

Wight, Ic. 1607 & 1608. 1850; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 411. 1997 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 155. 2004.

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